Comments about A Poison Tree by William Blake

The poem serves as a loud protest against hypocrisy, self-restraint, n suppression of feelings...with a message, ...Don't keep grudge; a timely catharsis gives relief , and while maintaining our mental equilibrium makes us able to lead a healthy life. Man is a social animal...the virtues of tolerance n forbearance are set against malignant n hypocritical attitude...
the tree is not poisonous but a poison tree...n the apple, like that fatal apple of the garden of Eden is a great metaphor; it's a fruit of double-dealing.the poem is a social verse composed by the hands of a visionary poet...my favorite poem, , , for many reasons...
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I suspect Blake wrote this poem to have meanings at several levels. To me the poem is about the internal conflicts inside man and the ultimate death of truth/love. The friend is lies/deceit, the foe is truth/love, the wrath/tree is ego and the apple is self image.
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A further comment: Why did Blake constuct this poem to be completely understood by those who had experienced what he had or those who might know of this very situation, but not just for everyone? Maybe he feared some kind of backlash from the enemy's friends if they ever figured out he had set this genius trap, but yet felt the urge to brag to his friends or even wanted all in the literary circle of his day to realize; 'You screw with me, I will get even, ' thus creating his own copywrite! ! ! ! GENIUS! ! ! ! ! (a reluctant 10.0)
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William Blake in this poem conveys how when wronged by a friend, he confronted him and his friend apologized. But when wronged by an enemy, he realized that it had been done out of contempt. So Blake devised an ingenius plan, born both out of fear and revenge. The enemy had probably stolen an idea or worse, one of his literary works. So Blake created another so irresistable his enemy couldn't help but bite. But hidden within was a poisonous fruit, either something Blake knew his enemy was unable to comprehend or wouldn't take the time to research. Either way his trap worked. It led to his enemy's complete destruction. Brilliant! ! ! !
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Nearly all of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience are outstanding poems and this remains to this day one of the most outstanding collections in existence. What marks them out most strongly from their predecessors is their personal tone. 'A Poison Tree ' is notable in being one of the first poems to introduce a note of irony into its its writing, 'I was GLAD to see my foe, stretched out beneath that tree'. During his lifetime most of Blake's work remained unappreciated and though today his early work is universally admired, the lack of a critical milieu led his later work to become eccentric.
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Nearly all of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience are outstanding poems and this remains to this day one of the most outstanding collections in existence. What marks them out most strongly from their predecessors is their personal tone. 'A Poison Tree ' is notable in being one of the first poems to introduce a note of irony into its its writing, 'I was GLAD to see my foe, stretched out beneath that tree'. During his lifetime most of Blake's work remained unappreciated and though today his early work is universally admired, the lack of a critical milieu led his later work to become eccentric.
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William Blake is one of the greatest intellectual masters of poetry English verse has ever produced. This poem, A Poison Tree, contains a moral lesson and wise teaching in the first stanza, the second and third stanzas build the intrigue with a ripening hate disguised, unleashed in the dark of a hidden revenge and the murderer, finally gloating upon the fruit of his crime in morning gladness. Poisoned apples tempt us still it seems in ever more recent art.
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One imagines the poet awake all night nursing his hatred for his foe and devising all kinds of schemes to destroy him. The poet's hate grows by its being suppressed, till it becomes so obvious that the foe has to do something, and the poet kills him. It is interesting that the poet creates an apple to distance himself from his hate, as though his hate were not part of him. It is also interesting that the foe does not talk to the poet about this problem when it becomes obvious to him, but then perhaps it is too late to talk. An intensely powerful poem of the kind which, to my mind, puts Blake alongside Shakespeare in the pantheon of poetry.
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